Dos and Don’ts of Marketing for Technology Companies

Published on: 22 November 2018 Last Updated on: 08 August 2019
Technology Companies

Marketing is essential to the success of any business – and that includes technology companies.

According to The CMO Survey, tech companies spend 15% of their total budget on marketing. Second, to Consumer Packaged Goods industry, the tech sector has one of the highest budget allocations for marketing. In fact, tech giant Samsung is considered the second largest advertising spender worldwide with a total  $9.2 billion advertising spending. This underlines the importance of marketing in the technology industry.

When you don’t run an effective marketing campaign, you’re doomed to fail — no matter how impressive your solution is. Unfortunately, a lot of tech companies, especially startups, still fail to recognize this fact. While some technology companies have marketing plans, many of these are ineffective.

We’ve seen a lot of tech companies come and go. And many of those companies that failed didn’t give marketing the right attention it deserves. To these companies, hindsight is an amazing but useless thing!

The good news is that you don’t have to commit the same missteps of these failing (or failed) tech companies. They are avoidable – and you can learn HOW to avoid them.

Here are some do’s and don’ts of running an effective marketing for a technology company.

DO: Be bold and interesting

When a tech company grows, their marketing strategies tend to stagnate and settle with the ‘usual campaigns’ that may have worked for them in the past. But the problem is that the competition is ever evolving. As such, your marketing strategies need to stay bold, interesting and exciting too.

Always remember that the moment you settle with formulaic marketing techniques, you become less competitive. Don’t wait to become irrelevant. Study your market, know where it’s headed and be ahead of the pack.

DON’T: Set up and just wait for visitors

So you’ve built a website, social media networks and added some content. But it shouldn’t end there. Don’t expect people to find and visit your page. You have to invest in promoting and marketing your online presence. Great content, social media presence and effective SEO for technology companies are vital to connecting with your customers.

DO: Focus on your company instead of customers

Perhaps the cliché, “the customer is always right” also means “the customer is king!” Unfortunately, not all tech companies realize this. Marketing campaigns of many tech companies focus so much on their products or services, but never really about their customers.

But the fact is that customers only care about their problems, needs, and goals. They’d only want to know if you offer a solution to their problem. To engage their interest, talk about how you can help them and in the language they understand. Effective marketing talks about how you can solve a problem, and once you get their interest, you can then brag about your product’s features.

DON’T: Spend too much or too little

For your marketing campaign to be effective, it needs to be funded adequately. According to U.S. Small Business Administration, a company should devote at least 7 to 8 percent of your gross revenues for marketing and advertising. This underlines the importance of marketing. You will spend on various marketing channels, and maintain a good marketing and sales team. Scrimping on your marketing budget can do more harm than good to your tech company.

A 2016 Gartner Survey shows that budget allocations for marketing continue to increase, climbing to 12% of the company budget. The tech industry is a very competitive one and there is a need to keep abreast with competition.

However, this doesn’t mean you can spend all of your revenue on your marketing. You don’t want to pour in your budget on failing or badly-managed marketing techniques. Evaluate each of the marketing strategies you employ and see which one gives you the most ROI. Study your target audience and know how to engage them better.

DO: Delegate to experts

Maybe you’re a great developer or an experienced CEO, but that doesn’t make you a good marketing person or a salesman. This is a common mistake of many tech companies. While you can give your inputs and ideas, you should give your marketing team the flexibility to create an effective marketing campaign. Pick people who have the credentials to run your company’s marketing.

DON’T: Ignore your online presence

A lot of tech companies tend to ignore their website and social media channels soon after launching them. It’s a huge mistake! Launching a website or social channels is not a one-off thing. It needs a sustained marketing effort to get your website work for you. Consider your website as an investment and as a vital part of your marketing strategy. You’ll need the help of agencies providing continuous website development to ensure that your website remains up-to-date, functional and effective. Keep your web presence active and relevant – it’s an important part of your branding.

DO: Focus your marketing efforts

In an effort to get a wide audience, some tech companies create an unclear persona and a scattered, complicated marketing campaign. As a result, they end up wasting their budget. While you want to reach as much audience as possible, launching a marketing campaign without proper targeting can both costly and wasteful. You need a targeted and focused marketing.

Know your product or service and engage a specific market segment, particularly those with the highest chances of conversion. Do your research and discover where your target audience is. Take note that not everyone is a potential customer – focus on channels that bring you the best results. For example, if you are marketing a tech solution for gamers, you will have the best returns if you place your ads on a gamers’ forum instead of a woodworkers’ forum.

DO: Build a strong organic relationship

Nowadays, it’s very easy to buy traffic or page visits from dodgy merchants. But the problem is that these numbers mean nothing to your business. Sadly, this remains one of the most common mistakes of many tech companies. In an attempt to boost their online presence in an instant, some companies resort to devious digital marketing schemes that promise to increase their web presence overnight. This is a major and wasteful misstep you should never do.

Your marketing campaign should focus on building your product. Letting people know what solutions you offer, engaging your audience and building strong organic relationships. Invest your time and efforts into marketing strategies with good returns – and you’re on the right track.

Read More: 

  1. Social Media Marketing role in Technology.
  2. Importance of Flexibility with Business Technology.
  3. Securing Mobile App Development with Blockchain Technology.

 

 

Content Rally wrapped around an online publication where you can publish your own intellectuals. It is a publishing platform designed to make great stories by content creators. This is your era, your place to be online. So come forward share your views, thoughts and ideas via Content Rally.

View all posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related

information technology consulting

Top 5 Things You Need to Look for When You Need IT Consulting

It’s not always ideal to call your antivirus tech support line when you’re experiencing problems with your system. Especially when you’re in the 11th most populous state, the minutes you’re spending on the phone is costing you resources. And the problem is likely well beyond their scope. It’s just one of the several factors why New Jersey firms use IT consulting firms to fix a business concern. Whether it is because the business needs an objective insight or because it cannot deal with the situation internally, consultants provide a solution to resolve the crisis without costing a fortune. But how do you tell which IT consulting NJ is suitable for your business? What are you supposed to look for when seeking professional advice? Before you grant third parties entry to your valuable data, check out the top 5 things you need to look for when you need IT consulting NJ. Experience Ensure that the firm has experience with businesses of your type and size. An IT consultant who operates with Fortune 500 companies can have a challenging time with small and medium enterprises. So when planning on contracting an IT consultant, make sure that the team has experience partnering with businesses not just in your sector but also in your size. Track Record of Success Check who they already worked with and make sure they have a successful track record. Many consulting firms may be impressive at pitching, but they do not have proven success. It is essential to talk about the firm’s previous projects with a concern comparable to yours. It would be great if the companies you’re evaluating can connect you to previous customers who can validate a successful partnership. Support Choose advisors and team supervisors who have access to up-to-date instruction, industry standards, and innovative project management techniques. Do your prospective IT consulting companies provide in-depth training? Are their support readily available? Identify and resolve issues. Once you hire an external IT consultant, you likely understand the particular issues that you would like to address. However, a thoroughly efficient consultant can innovate and go beyond the boundaries of your concern to detect and solve the problems you have not yet discovered. You want to have a consultant who dares to advise you if you’re mistaken and to find out what you’re lacking. They should also be able to guide you to the right course, even if it is the opposite of your original vision. Team player Even though you hire a consultant as an external contractor, they will need to function within your group. Communication can be in person, via email, or video meetings, so both speaking and writing skills are essential. Consulting firms need the capacity to protect their perspective, but they also have to acknowledge if others have a better idea. Choosing the appropriate IT consulting company can be a challenging task. But with this list, you’ll be prepared to find your potential IT consultants in no time! Read Also: Information Technology And Business Success: The Things That Connect Them How New POS Technology Is Advancing Merchant Processing New Technology In Business: 4 Inventions In 2019 That Are Changing The Game

READ MOREDetails
Kindle

5 Incredible Benefits Of Reading On A Kindle

A kindle is one of the many latest inventions that have made our lives better. But how? The answer to the question you will find in this article. People who love to read books will appreciate how it can be helpful, in ways that a normal book cannot. The number of E-books and e-readers has been increasing lately, and a Kindle is a perfect device to buy and have in your bag. People from all walks of life are beginning to realize how handy an average kindle can be in their daily lives. It is not just the young and tech-savvy readers, who have a passion for gadgets that will fall in love with a Kindle, but it also the older generation who has to admit that they need kindles in their lives now. If you are looking for Amazon for yourself, look no further as Malaysia is the best place to have these days. There are many books that you cannot find in bookstores these days, and no matter how much you stay in denial, it is a fact that sooner or later, you will need a understand this fact in the correct order to get the things done in the right manner. Here are some benefits for you if you decide to read on a kindle. Benefits Of Reading On A Kindle There are several benefits of reading your favorite books on a kindle. In this article, you will get complete information about it. 1. Perfect For Night Owls: If you are a night owl, you will understand the struggle we are talking about. Reading a book can be very relaxing, and the perfect place to do that is a bed. When you are tired from all your day’s work, a good book is there to cheer you up. Getting in your comfy pajamas inside your bed at night with a good book is the dream come true. However, sometimes you could be sharing your room with someone and may not want to disturb them with your shenanigans. In such cases, you can certainly not read a book in the dark, and that is where it saves the day. People who are always traveling will also appreciate the usefulness of a kindle. Sometimes you have to travel at night, and you have the strong urge of reading a book. It is dark, so how can you possibly read a book? If you have a kindle, you may not have to worry about it. You can read your favorite books while lying down, without turning on that LED or the reading light. 2. Your Library Will Be Safe: If you have a Kindle, all your worries about your library being safe may finally come to an end. Wherever you go, there is no chance of your books getting destroyed, stained, lost or damaged. It is just one Kindle that you need to worry about, and all your books will stay where they are because the library will tuck away safely on the Cloud. You also do not have to make excuses to people who want to borrow your books, just tell them you own a kindle. There is no insurance fee, just a password that you will need to remember. 3. Cheaper: Books are nice, but they are also expensive. Maybe you can get your books from a second-hand shop, but how many? Your books will ultimately cost you money! With a Kindle, you do not have to go out of your way to find that book and buy it. Some books cannot be even found for a lower price as they are extremely rare, not to mention how some books are not even available in paperback. Just click on the name and buy! If you are skeptical about some book, you can read some sample chapters and decide if you like it enough to get it. In a store, you cannot do that unless your reading speed is insanely good, and even then the bookstore owner would find it creepy that you are lurking around. You can keep on expanding your physical library while also expanding your horizons digitally. You will just have to make a small investment initially in an e-reader, but then you can regain this money in no time if you read a lot of books. 4. Very Convenient: Any Kindle owner would agree that the biggest advantage of a Kindle is the convenience it brings in their life. A person who loves books needs to invest in a Kindle. Kindle is your ideal travel buddy and much lighter than the average books. You can hold and read it easily even on a train. It is very lightweight, so you do not have to carry a bunch of books around, just this one device and you can access your whole library on the go. Do not worry about bookmarks either because the device remembers where you left off, so you do not have to remember page numbers or carry around a bookmark. 5. Additional Perks: You can keep your reference material, favorite books, reading material and business manuals on a single device that will fit in your backpack or purse. There are many updates available of on a kindle that you will find fascinating. Each new Kindle can receive the transferred books from some older reader. Books that you download on a Kindle or a computer can be transferred into the other device. You will find bookmarks, highlighting and search features in all versions of Kindles. You can take notes within the screen; no longer worrying about ruining your books or making the wrong notes and scrubbing them off.  People who use this version of online reading will receive access to Kindle-only books. For example, if some author has written a novella specifically for Amazon, only you will be able to read it because you own a kindle. Do not have second thoughts about a kindle because it will be definitely something that you will use always and it will make an incredible addition in your gadgets. Books or not, you will always have a Kindle in your bag, and this can't bore you in those long bus rides anymore. Read Also: The Ultimate Streaming Guide To Watch TV Online 10 Easy Ways For Students To Improve Their Writing Skills

READ MOREDetails
privacy-security-ethics-process-mining

Process Mining and Data Privacy – Key Points to Remember

The global pandemic of 2020 was challenging for frontline workers, the public, and businesses. Besides a dwindling economy, governments and organizations suffered various setbacks, including exponential data thefts. Security incidents became more costly and harder to contain for the latter due to a drastic operational shift. As per experts, the cost of a data breach reached a record high, shelling $4.24 million per incident on average from affected ventures. As more businesses migrate to the digital world, data security becomes a reason for severe migraine for owners. Keeping the incidents and the present situation in mind, the European Union introduced the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for improved data privacy controls for EU citizens. GDPR requires a thorough evaluation of every software application before its implementation to prevent possible data breaches and loss of customers, employees, and corporate data. Automatically, business process management solutions, like process mining, RPA, automated process discovery, and others, fall under the tight scrutiny of GDPR data privacy guidelines. Process Mining in Business Process Management – A Brief Overview Process mining is an intelligent technology solution enabling owners to build a reliable visual map of business processes elaborating how every task within a process is executed. It captures employee-software system interactions and converts data into event logs. This provides an overview of end-to-end processes. Process mining tools provide task and process insights to evaluate task executions for scaling improvement opportunities. These insights also support informed decision-making pertaining to process efficiencies and complexities. Process mining bridges the gap between traditional model-based processes and data-centric processes for further analysis. There are three basic types of process mining; namely, process discovery to discover a process model capturing the behavior in an event log (collection of events), conformance checking for identifying commonalities and discrepancies between a process model and an event log, and process re-engineering to improve a process model using event logs. In a human-centric process, each event comprises a case identifier, an activity name, a timestamp, and optional attributes such as resources or costs. Usually, a case identifier refers to individuals and includes much personal data. And herein lies the significance of improving data security. The Importance of Data Security in Process Mining Automated process mining relies heavily on enterprise data and captures confidential information about the company or the clients. Data collected during the mining of processes are categorized under the following datasets: Key identifiers: These datasets contain unique information identifying individuals, such as their full names and social security numbers. Quasi-identifiers: These datasets are considered indirect identification of individuals—for example, gender, age, and postal code. Sensitive attributes: Information related to salary, payment, financial statements, and others are private and sensitive for individuals or companies. Insensitive attributes: These datasets contain general or non-risky information not covered by the other features. Given the confidential and sensitive nature of the above-mentioned data, attention to cybersecurity in process mining has gained momentum recently. Also, third parties can offer the latter; therefore, choosing providers with secure products and processes is equally crucial. Any breach in data security can prove costly for the company owners and tarnish customer/client/partner relationships. But the shared responsibility of protecting critical information should rest upon employees. After all, it is said that the usual source of security incidents are current employees and, in certain instances, ex-workers. Respective teams, while handling information, should protect sensitive data at every step of task execution. In order to achieve the same, decisions regarding data transparency and usage should be made aforehand. Most specifically, such decisions involve the type of data used, data extraction methods, data accessibility, data protection, and compliance requirements. On the other hand, process mining can be leveraged to detect silent internal attacks on data. It can quickly identify abnormal behavior in the company’s internal network and indicate apparent security breaches. Therefore, data is integral to process mining, and the security of which should be the core objective of software applications and associated teams. Key Privacy Metrics in Process Mining In order to evaluate the privacy of specific data, owners should decide on particular metrics for measurement. These privacy metrics tally the security level of each data in terms of disclosure and are broadly categorized under the following sub-heads: Bounded knowledge: Data is restricted with specific rules to avoid disclosing confidential information. Need to know: The unnecessary data is eliminated from the system to prevent any breach. This metric controls data access. Protected from disclosure: Data confidentiality is observed during data mining using the classification method. Data quality metrics: These metrics measure the loss of information/benefit, while the complexity criteria validate the efficiency and scalability of different techniques within this scope. Process Mining and Data Capture – Key Points to Consider Since process mining extracts granular data at the process level, care is taken to ensure that any new process doesn’t come into conflict with personal data policies. Owners should also ascertain that software solutions for mining processes comply with the specific data security requirements. Therefore, people involved with the entire system must consider a few data capture points. Access to raw data: The process mining team requires access to corporate data to understand what’s most important for analysis. Here, the company can choose and grant access to specific datasets for further research. Choose the right strategy: Besides mining processes for raw insights, the team also translates the raw data into broad terms and updates it into dashboards. Later on, the respective team can decide what features to focus on. Filter: Occasionally, the company tracks information that doesn’t require further analysis for specific processes. In this case, the data can simply be omitted from the system. Datasets that are sensitive or do not directly impact the business analysis outcome are deleted to maintain the focus only on valid and relevant data. Pseudonymization: Encrypting the information to protect the confidentiality of sensitive information prevents users from correlating them to real data specific, like specific names, addresses, or other PII data. For instance, if the company wishes to maintain secrecy about employees directly involved with process-related tasks can follow this approach. Here, the case identifier’s name is replaced with numbers. Anonymization: This is similar to pseudonymization, where the names are replaced with unique pseudonyms instead of numbers. Hence, unauthorized users cannot identify individuals’ names or confidential information about them from the available data. Conclusion Besides handling data in bulk daily, enterprises using online systems leave behind their digital footprints. These footprints are valuable data captured by process mining to examine how employees execute each process and sub-tasks. Needless to say, mining for such insights is done with the company’s best interests in mind, namely, to optimize operations and resources and derive maximum value. However, such datasets carry sensitive information of various interested parties, any breach of which can prove highly hazardous for all. Therefore, data is the primary source for process miners to carry out their objectives, but the company must ensure the data is handled with care. Hence, data security is a significant factor in process mining. Have A Look :- How to Get Copy of a Divorce Decree 7 Secrets To Make Your Baby Fall Asleep Faster All That You Need To Keep In Mind Before Selling On Facebook

READ MOREDetails